In general terms, it is desired to assemble many small sections of raw audio and video content (i.e. sound clips and video clips) to form a finished audiovisual product, by way of an authoring process. However, in many environments a considerable degree of specialist knowledge and time must be invested in the authoring process in order to achieve a desirable finished audiovisual product. These problems are exacerbated where the audiovisual product has a complex navigational structure or requires many separate raw content objects.
As a simple example, a feature movie or television program typically has a straightforward linear navigational sequence of individual scenes. By contrast, it is now desired to develop new categories of audiovisual products which have a much more complex navigational structure, such as a movie with many scene choices or different movie endings, and/or which have a large number of individual scenes, such as an interactive quiz game with say one thousand individual quiz questions.
In one preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to authoring of audiovisual content into a form compliant with a specification for DVD-video and able to be recorded on an optical disc recording medium.
An optical disc is a convenient storage media for many different purposes. A digital versatile disc (DVD) has been developed with a capacity of up to 4.7 Gb on a single-sided single-layer disc, and up to 17 Gb on a double-sided double-layer disc. There are presently several different formats for recording data onto a DVD disc, including DVD-video, DVD-audio, and DVD RAM, amongst others. Of these, DVD-video is particularly intended for use with pre-recorded video content, such as a motion picture. As a result of the large storage capacity and ease of use, DVD discs are becoming popular and commercially important. Conveniently, a DVD-video disc is played using a dedicated playback device with relatively simple user controls, and DVD players for playing DVD-video discs are becoming relatively widespread. More detailed background information concerning the DVD-video specification is available from DVD Forum at www.dvdforum.org.
Although DVD-video discs and DVD-video players are becoming popular and widespread, at present only a limited range of content has been developed. In particular, a problem arises in that, although the DVD specification is very flexible, it is also very complex. The process of authoring content into a DVD-video compatible format is relatively expensive and time consuming. In practice, the flexibility and functions allowed in the DVD-video specification are compromised by the expensive and time consuming authoring task. Consequently, current DVD-video discs are relatively simple in their navigational complexity. Such simplicity can impede a user's enjoyment of a DVD-video disc, and also inhibits the development of new categories of DVD-video products.